Using milling systems when routing or inlay-milling a wide variety of patterns with the aid of hand router is known. These templates are used as interior and exterior templates. A template must be made for each pattern to be milled. The milling process then runs as follows. The template is affixed to the workpiece. Then by means of a stop collar attached to the hand router, the contours of the template are traced (for exterior templates: tracing of the template's exterior contour; for interior templates: tracing of the template's interior contour). More complex milling work is possible with the aid of a CNC milling machine (computer-controlled NC machine).
Known milling systems (interior templates, exterior templates) have the disadvantage that a separate milling system must be created for each pattern to be milled. With these templates, only the one designated pattern can be milled. This applies to the exterior templates as well as to the interior templates. The production of such templates is very time-consuming and expensive. Moreover, it requires, in addition to the appropriate manufacturing methods, a certain creativity and special skills in the field of ornamentation of workpieces.
The quality of the milling depends directly on the execution of the template. Thus, uneven areas on the cutouts (for interior templates) and on the template periphery (for the exterior templates) are transferred directly to the milling.
The disadvantage of exterior milling systems is that only the exterior perimeter of a pattern can be cut out. And the disadvantage of interior milling systems is that the complete milling of a complex pattern is not possible since not all details can be cut away from the milling system. This is due to the dropping out of certain partial zones of the template due to a possibly unavoidable overcutting in the milling pass (for example, in a template for milling out the uppercase letter B). When using a router 11 with tracing collar 16 and router bit 17 and the corresponding template, the undesirable overcutting problems appear in the middle milled region of the “B.” Another example of this problem is a template for milling several circles of different diameter about a common center. Here, only the largest diameter could appear on the template, since the smaller template sections would merely drop out.
More extensive pattern structures (for instance, a rose with petals) can only be milled out with the aid of computerized NC machines (CNCs). For medium-scale woodworking shops, use of these computerized NC machines is usually cost-prohibitive. In addition, such machines can only be used in workshops. Due to their significant weight, they cannot be used on-site. Moreover, as a rule, for reasons of cost, the use of such NC machines is not possible by the nonprofessional hobbyist.
Additionally, when milling, it has been difficult to accurately and comfortably hold and control the milling tool.